Fall Ball is hereeee!

(EDITOR'S NOTE: Sonoma State softball senior and 2010-11 Student-Athlete Advisory Committee President Jesse Talaugon will keep her own blog this year at http://jessetalaugon.blogspot.com/, but we will keep this page up to date with any new blog posts she creates as well.)

Sorry for the delay on posting, this post will make up for the last two weeks, which were pretty eventful.

Two weeks ago marked the beginning of our traditional fall season and also the conclusion of self-conducted morning conditioning, because as a team, we have reached a point where we can practice more efficiently, because our fitness is up and we are now holding ourselves more personally accountable. I love the traditional fall season because it means more time on the field, more freedom to work outside of practice, because there are less restrictions, intrasquad scrimmages on Saturdays, and this upcoming weekend, we face Solano JC and San Francisco State in doubleheaders to start our preseason play. Although very new still, our defense looks pretty strong. We've got a roster full of just raw talent and we literally don't take a day off from improving that with lots of repetition, live defense drills, and "game time".

Offensively, we are still getting into the swing of things (no pun intended) with hitting circuits and trying to get as much live hitting as possible. It's nice to have four pitchers who are really making us earn it, but it's hard to handle that with only two catchers and a somewhat short-handed coaching staff, but we're making the most out of what we have. This year I think it is really going to be a goal of ours to prove that we are capable of using short game to our advantage. Last year, we were known for our big bats, power hitting, and record breaking stats in home runs, but this year we want to use all the speed that we have and attack the defense with changing things up by perfecting our short game and mixing that in with our powerful offense. I look forward to what the rest of this fall season brings and am excited for the preseason play starting this week with Solano.

SAAC has been super busy in preparing for Sonoma State's second annual Homecoming Week. It is really in efforts to create more school spirit and gain some more support of athletics. We have collected money and are sending it off to the American Cancer Society in order to help fund the Breast Cancer Walk in San Francisco next month while also brainstorming some ideas of how we can aide in the disaster relief in San Bruno. We are really excited about hosting the first ever home meet for our Cross Country girls this week in Santa Rosa and are going to show that via a breakfast tailgate this Saturday and representing Sonoma State proudly by wearing our "SSU BLUE CREW" shirts. We're hoping these shorts will spread and students, families, and fans can wear them to all of our school's sporting events.

School is really underway with a midterm approaching and deadlines coming out of nowhere, at least that's how I feel. I have a media law midterm this week where I have to memorize a million cases about the first amendment, libel, privacy law, etc. So it looks like the library is where my next few evenings will be spent while trying to sell some ads to local businesses for the schools newspaper which hasn't been that successful this far, but hopefully things will turn around for me in that avenue.

In other unrelated news I'm so disappointed in the 49ers and their performance lately, after that great showing against the Saints. I was hopeful, but I had to change the channel yesterday because I couldn't take it much longer. On the brighter side of sports, the Yankees pulled it off and clinched their spot for playoffs, ARod coming super clutch with the two run jack and the reserves coming in and stepping up to the plate with runners on base is exactly what I like to see.

Byeeee :)

Women's Soccer: Katie Parucha, Part II

(EDITOR'S NOTE: This blog was written before the soccer games against Cal State Stanislaus and Chico State this past weekend.)

Since the last time I wrote, we have had four games and are about to compete in two more this weekend! Our first game against Cal Poly Pomona went pretty well considering the fact that we were playing with one man down for most of the second half and two ten minutes overtimes. In the end, we tied 0-0. Taylor Colacion was awarded a red card in the beginning of the second half. When the card was pulled out we thought he mistakenly had pulled out a red. Unfortunately, we were wrong. Because of this call by the ref, Taylor was unable to play in Sunday's game against San Bernadino.

Our game on Sunday was a little rough, the final score being 4-0 San Bernadino. I felt that our team made San Bernadino look better than they actually were. I do give credit to them because they were able to finish their opportunities and come out hard. Unfortunately, most of their goals resulted off of our own mistakes leading to a breakdown in our defensive third. After this game our team had a somewhat wake up call to what was in store for us the rest of the season. Each game is a battle and just because you play well one day doesn't mean that you are guaranteed to play well the next time.

After the weekend ended our team had to move on and focus on the next weekend for the games against East Bay and UCSD. On Friday, we ended up losing 1-0 and unfortunately I tore my MCL in the first half of the game resulting in the end of my season. Again, a lot of the chances we had were not put in the back of the net. We have been playing really well, it’s just we have not been able to score. On Sunday, the game was a complete turn-around. We came out extremely hard and were passing the ball extremely well. It felt as if everyone was in sync and we had all committed to working hard for each other. We ended up tying 0-0 and I was extremely proud of the way that we had played!

Our next games are away against Stanislaus who is in first place in the North and Chico which is always a tough team to play. I will keep you guys posted about those games after the weekend! Until then have a good week!

Week 3 with President Talaugon

(EDITOR'S NOTE: Sonoma State softball senior and 2010-11 Student-Athlete Advisory Committee President Jesse Talaugon will keep her own blog this year at http://jessetalaugon.blogspot.com/, but we will keep this page up to date with any new blog posts she creates as well.)

This week was really focused around personal improvement because we are almost certain that this fourth week, we will be tested once again on the 12 gassers. We have to make them within the allowed time frame or the coaches will take our improving fitness into their own hands and this is something we as a team we feel we can handle on our own. We are still going out there twice a week at 7 a.m. doing our own self-conditioning along with optional conditioning on Sunday's, where those who need it attend. Practices are becoming a lot more engaging and instead of spending a great deal of time on actual skills, we handle that during our individual sessions with the coaches. It is there that we are split into groups based on positions -- corners, middles, outfield, pitchers/catchers. This allows us to spend our time wisely and efficiently on the field and we've been able to work on things like cuts, run downs, pick offs, live defense, and "game time". Game time is basically a game-like situation where Coach Bridges is the pitcher and Coach Mack (McCormick) gives signs and rotates players in and out of defense and offense. This allows for everyone to get time on the field, whether it be offensively and defensively. It is definitely one of the more fun components of our practices. Things are looking up and I am confident that this Friday, we will get the job done and satisfy the coaches.

School is in full swing right now and for one of my Communications classes, I work as a Public Relations specialist for the school newspaper and sell ad space. It's a really cool opportunity to take on real life responsibilities in a somewhat controlled setting. My goal is to sell four ads each week, so I'm definitely going to need to network myself throughout Rohnert Park and Cotati if I plan to meet that quota each week. My media law class is pretty tedious and four hours of late night class after hitting, weights, and conditioning isn't the most lively of times, but I'm hopeful the agenda will start to have some variety and I'll dread that class less.

I'm really excited about what we have planned for SAAC, we are currently working with the American Cancer Society and contributing to their annual Breast Cancer Walk because with all of the teams conflicting schedules with games and practices, we cannot physically attend, but we are gathering funds to donate. We are also planning on partnering with the Boys & Girls Club of Sonoma County this semester and seeing how we can contribute to their cause. Also, with the recent disaster in San Bruno we would like to see how we can donate their and help with those relief efforts.

Wish me and the team luck this week!

One week down, 7,341,535 more to go...

(EDITOR'S NOTE: Sonoma State softball senior and 2010-11 Student-Athlete Advisory Committee President Jesse Talaugon will keep her own blog this year at http://jessetalaugon.blogspot.com/, but we will keep this page up to date with any new blog posts she creates as well.)

Gosh, never thought week one was going to end. Unfortunately, the team didn't come back in the best of shape and everyone noticed and the coaches clearly not pleased. The first day of conditioning we were to run 12 "gassers" which consists of 12, 100-yard sprints; fast people finish in under 17 seconds, medium speed people finish in under 18 and slower people finish in under 20. Sadly, we didn't even get that far because in the middle of the 90+ degree weather, people were dry-heaving, dropping, pulling muscles, and puking. Needless to say we have our work cut out for us this fall and are going to have to work twice as hard to get back into shape so we don't waste our valuable time on the field.

Myself along with my fellow seniors came up with a plan where we now condition twice a week on the days we don't already condition and lift with the coaches, we head to the track at 6:45 a.m. and create and conduct our own conditioning for an hour. We also do optional, but "recommended", conditioning on Sunday evenings. Since we set this in place, gassers are less of a struggle for the team as a whole and hope to complete all in the allowed time in the coming weeks. Though it's a minor set back, I'm hoping that some good will come of this and we will come together as a team sooner than anticipated and some leadership roles will emerge in the process.

Conditioning and weight lifting aside, we have a talented group of girls out there and there is going to be thick competition at just about every position. I am flip flopping from catching to outfield and enjoy both, but my arm isn't enjoying the double time because of the strain it puts on my arm is tremendous. But nothing lots of hours rehabbing and strengthening in the training room can't help. Ice baths have become a common thread among my teammates and I to help ease the hurt of this strenuous fall season.

As far as SAAC is concerned we were very pleased with the turnout of our first event of the year and earned a good chunk of money that will help dig us out the financial hole that we are currently in. After doing that our next plan is to join the American Cancer Society in their Breast Cancer Walk in Golden Gate Park toward the end of October. Another side project that we are attempting to embark on is to create shirts that we can sell to the school and the community that read "Blue Crew" and it essentially will be a shirt you can wear in support of athletics at any of the games, races, matches, tournaments, etc. While that is currently a work in progress, our current focus is raising the money for Breast Cancer and getting all of our teams out there to support the fall sports which are currently in season.

Senior year is not exactly what I expected it to be or maybe I was unsure of what to expect from the get go. I am taking four classes this semester -- Media Law, Life Span Development (Psychology), Public Relations Team for The Star, and Senior Internship. This only leaves one more upper division GE, Senior Seminar, and taking the WEPT for second semester and then I'll graduate? Well, seems like I need to narrow my focus and just live in the moment and with that said my current goal academically is to get a 4.0 this semester. For SAAC, I want to earn $300 for the Breast Cancer Walk among the student athletes and for softball, I want to attack the outside pitch and learn to love it as much as I do the up and in pitch.

With week one being done and now apart of my past, I'm hopeful for the future. Buh Bye :)

Women's Soccer: Katie Parucha

Hey fellow Seawolves! My name is Katie Parucha, or KP, and I am a junior on the women's soccer team.

Although we are three weeks into school, it feels like a good amount of time since our team has been up in Ropo (Rohnert Park). Our first day of double days was August 16th and started out with the infamous "doggies" fitness test. Going into summer, our whole team knows that this grueling test needs to be prepared for, but once it is completed, an attitude of relief and a feeling of accomplishment sets in. During double days, we did a lot of scrimmaging and small sided games in order to get our touch back, along with get a feel for how the new players perform.

After only two days of double days, the whole team was able to travel to Lake Tahoe and stay at Allison Kern's house. We were "roughing it" when it came to the location of the two story house seeing as it was on the lake. The clear blue Tahoe water and soft sand is her family's backyard and I don't see how it could get much better than that! Training in Tahoe was difficult, but I feel that it added to our work ethic and team unity. The toughest challenge was for our team to run up Mount Heavenly ,which is usually covered in snow and used for snowboarding... luckily for us it was a clear path and gave our coach the great idea of giving us the task to race up it. Although it was an extremely hard run, it was one of the most beautiful sceneries I have ever witnessed. As our team made its way through the finish line, we were gasping for air and wanted to collapse, but after we had collected ourselves, we knew that it was "all down hill from here"... literally. Overall, Tahoe was an amazing trip and I really felt that our team grew much closer not just as teammates, but also as friends.

Once we came back from Tahoe, the reality of season had begun to set it. We played UC Santa Cruz the Sunday after we arrived back from Tahoe. The end result was a draw of 1-1 after three 45 minute halves. We played a longer game because it gave everyone a chance to get some playing time and show the coaches what they had to offer. We came out playing a 3-5-2 formation which is what we played in the spring. Since then, we have gone back to a 4-4-2 which has worked out for the better as we have created more offensive opportunities and tightened up our defense.

Since then, we have played Santa Rosa JC, Domnican University, and Western Oregon. We successfully have beaten all three which gives us some confidence going into season. The game against Western Oregon was our first match that counted towards our overall record and was a close one. Although we had possession of the ball the majority of the time, we couldn't finish our many opportunites to score. Jaci Davey scored with 30 seconds left in the first half, which gave us a positive attitude going into the second half. Unfortunately, Western Oregon came back and scored tying up the game at 1-1. Our team kept pressing and continued to have a little trouble finding the back of the net, but within the last 28 seconds of the game, junior Taylor Colacion scored a header off of a cross from freshman Lauren Fryer. GOOOOAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!

Last year our team was on the other side of the spectrum seeing as many of our games resulted in losses within the last five minutes in the game. This was a great way to start off our season! I would like to thank all of the fellow athletic teams that came out and supported us during that game! It was awesome having some fans at our games!

Our first CCAA game is against Cal Poly Pomona this Friday at home at 4:00 p.m. and we couldn't be more excited. Everyone on our team is going into this season with a positive attitude and I feel that in doing this we are setting ourselves up for success! The next time you hear from me will be after our first two games. Until then have a good week!